Tips Archives - GetGoing NC!

Skills Guide: Night Hiking Tips

JoeMiller — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 20:20:29 +0000

Hiking at night offers rewards not offered in daylight. This type of hiking calls for a different live of concentration: your world is defined by the sphere of light cast by your headlamp. You tune in to the sounds of the night, where are not the same as the sounds of daytime: more owls than warblers, more raccoons than squirrels. Pause in a clearing, snuff your light and you can see the glories of the vast night sky. It’s a special place, the night world, and it is one well worth exploring. Our guide offers tips on how to take a safe and successful hike in the waning light of day into night.

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Skills Guide: Exploring Off Trail

JoeMiller — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 18:45:47 +0000

You love to hike — and lately, everyone else seems to love hiking as well. On a nice day, your favorite trails are packed. The solitude you seek in the woods has vanished. At least it has from the established trails.

No doubt you’ve been hiking one of your favorites and seen a long-abandoned roadbed spur off into the woods. Or a well-trod game trail that likewise diverts from the path most traveled. A variety of unmarked paths crisscross the woods you hike on a regular basis. Wouldn’t it be great if you felt confident enough to explore them? Even for just a short ways?

Our GetHiking! Quick Guide to Exploring Off Trail helps you gain that confidence, by showing you the things to check and know before heading out and what you need to do when you do decide to head off trail. It even covers what to do should you discover you aren’t where you thought you were.

This is not a comprehensive guide to becoming Daniel Boone. Rather, it provides quick, common sense tips to help you feel more confident and comfortable in the woods — even when you aren’t off trail!

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Skills Guide: Hiking in the Rain

JoeMiller — Fri, 24 Jul 2020 15:18:27 +0000

We love to hike in the rain. Maybe we don’t prefer it, but we enjoy it all the same. Two reasons:

One, it’s a quiet and intimate experience. Good rain gear encases you in a protective pod protecting you from nature while providing access to a smaller but more intimate portion of it.

In the rain, surrounded by low clouds, your world is significantly reduced but considerably more focused. There is less to see, and there is more to see.

Reason two, and this is a big plus in these times of avoiding contact with others: not many people enjoy hiking in the rain. Why? I can only guess it’s because they don’t go into it prepared, and they don’t know what they’re missing.

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